Emotional Toxin
by Illisandria Carthain
Summary: ZADR. Character Death,. Mild language. Entry for a Z-A-D-R-Orange Art-Exchange.


(A/N: This is another exchange piece for Z-A-D-R-Orange on DA. This request was "I always enjoy violent romance, whether in art or writing form. Something involving fighting and blood, but also affection, would be nice." This is what came out. (PS: for those of you wondering, I'm invadernere there) Enjoy.)

Zim screamed as a large gash tore his face from cheekbone to chin. He respoinded with a large swing of his hand, knocking Dib back. Then he pounced on the human and began to pummel him with his fists and scratch at him with ungloved claws that dripped a toxic, otherworldly poison.

Dib howled in anguish and horror. "How DARE you?"  
"How dare Zim what?" the Irken grunted as the small, but surprisingly strong, human threw Zim off of him and against the crumbling wall of what used to be Dib's home. "What did Zim do, filth-thing? Tell Zim what he did and maybe you will get something that is like an apology out of Zim, no! You will not even get that! You're the one that attacked Zim, not the other way around! Zim should not apologise, YOU should!"  
"Why should I apologise? I'm always apologising, always explaining, always PLEADING! What does it matter I plead one more time? My life isn't worth pleading to you!" He fired a bolt of electricity out of a modified Tazer and hit the running Irken in the chest, sending bolts and flickers of energy across his chest and back, causing him to stop and shiver violently. Then Dib ran forward and kicked Zim in the head, making blood gush out of the head wound he had just received as it hit a water pipe jutting from the ruined façade.

"Son of a Gorshgan!" Zim slurred, reeling from the pain and blood loss. "You stupid human! Zim has no damn idea what you're talking about! When have you ever explained anything to Zim? When have you ever apologised to Zim? When have you pleaded with Zim? Zim has never seen you do anything less than scream at and/or attack Zim. Where does this rage come from? Where can Zim get some?" He staggered again and coughed, black Irken blood oozing from between his (strangely perfect) teeth. "Zim laughs at your pathetic attempts at ending Zim's life, Zim has the upper hand. Soon the poison from my claws will reach your heart and begin to spread to your brain and all will be lost for you. So long as Zim has his PAK, Zim is INVINCIBLE!"

Dib shrieked wordlessly and lunged forward, wrapping his bloody hands around the silver and pink sphere on Zim's back and trying to rip it off rather unsuccessfully. His fingers couldn't find purchase as slick as they were and they kept slipping off. The entire time he was doing this, Zim was bucking and twisting and attempting to get the human off of his back to no avail. Zim was slowly weakening from blood loss and Dib's wriggling digits finally found a hold between the metal of Zim's PAK and his back and he ripped Zim's PAK off with a loud scream.

Zim fell to the ground, strength completely sapped, and panted while looking up at Dib wordlessly. When he finally found his voice he just gasped, "Why is it that you do these things...to Zim?..."

"I THOUGHT YOU WOULD LOVE ME BACK!" Dib cried. Zim stopped cold and stared at Dib, wide eyed.

"...what? What...foolery is this?..."

"I sent you all those letters and those emails and gifts and you never replied. Not so much as a phone call, not even a 'Oh hey Dib, thanks for all those gifts'! You didn';t even PRETEND to notice me any more than you did before the letters. And here I though you were playing hard to get but two months, TWO MONTHS, is a little too long to be playing hard to get. I finally realised it: you didn't love me. You were being a self-righteous little PRICK and I just couldn't stand it! So I invited you over here, while my dad and sister were gone at some gaming convention he decided he wanted to go to since he helped design the neurological interface for one of the systems and decided I would end this. One of us was going to die today and I was going to be free of this pain, this WANT either by death or through it."

"So you...Zim never got...those letters..."

"LIAR! How could you have not gotten them? I left them on your doorstep every day! They were weighted down with rocks! They couldn't have just BLOWN away!"

Zim paused, his eyes already starting to glaze over, and then inhaled sharply. "GIR..."

"What? You can't pin this on your robot!"

"No...every day GIR...would have some...sort...of letter or package with...him...I thought...it was just the mail for...him...he never told...Zim that they were for...Zim...I never...asked..." Zim was beginning to lose his grip on life now, slipping away quickly.

Dib sneered and looked down on the Invader, "Well I suppose it's a bit too late for apologies now...isn't it?" He too was slowing down, losing his battle with Zim's toxin.

Zim smiled faintly, "I...suppose...But I could still...tell you something..." He took a raspy breath and exhaled, blood bubbling from his mouth and dribbling onto the floor, "That I...wish I could...have told you sooner but...so weak..."

"What is so...damn important that you'd...waste your last breath to tell me...spaceboy?" Dib had slumped up against a wall, gasping heavily.

"That I loved you...as well..." Zim smiled at Dib's shocked expression and continued through laboured breaths, "I was...so afraid of these...'emotions...that I hid them...away...now that I am going...to join the Great Queen...I have no fear of emotions...I am not...Defective...I just...love...you..." And that was his last breath.

Dib howled in anguish again and dragged himself towards the still body of Zim, tears blending with blood as it ran down his face, "No no no no no...you can't...I'm...I'm so sorry..." he clutched the PAK to his chest and held it close to his body as he lay next to Zim, one arm draped over the Irken's shoulder. As the PAK tendrils entered his body and began to drive out the toxin he smiled.

"_You have no idea what you were toying with, Dib. Your filthy human body chemistry isn't compatible with the PAK. It would've destroyed you!"_

"Yes...it will destroy me...but before it does...I can finally be with you...and tell you I love you..." Dib rested his/their head against a piece of a wall and smiled, his systems were already beginning to shut down from the strain of the PAK. He could almost hear Zim's voice as he passed on.

_I love you too Dib-worm..._


End file.
